The Tochukaso
by Radiant Valkyrie
Summary: A young paras attempts to fight off his species' inevitable fate: to have his mind and body taken over by the mushrooms on his back.
1. Perry

In the dark, in a cave somewhere in Kanto, was a parasect and her eggs. After guarding over them for many days and weeks, they were ready to hatch. A few of the eggs were already starting to shake and one of them was beginning to crack. The parasect mother waited patiently as each paras broke out of their shell and crawled out into the open. They immediately identified their mother and made their way over to her.

The parasect looked down at her children with her blank white eyes, saying not a word to them. Each of her paras children were barebacked with not even the tiniest mushroom growing out of their backs. The mother made sure that each of her children were present and close by her side. Then the ritual began. The parasect shook her body, releasing tons of spores from the large mushroom on her back. The spores settled on the bodies of her children, taking root in what would be their very own host. With the ritual complete, the parasect scuttled away, leaving her children to fend for themselves. She would never see them again.

As the days went by, the paras children had gone off on their own. Their lives have been fairly safe in the safety of the damp cave. The spores scattered on their backs had burrowed themselves in the paras' sensitive skin, already beginning to grow. Eventually two small tochukaso mushrooms sprouted from their backs; they thrived in their hosts' bodies and the damp, dark habitat the paras lived in did not hurt either.

At first the mushrooms didn't bug the paras much; there was just a little irritation when the tochukaso first began to grow. As the mushrooms grew larger and larger, the paras noticed other strange things happening to their bodies. The amount of food they usually ate did not seem to be enough. They still felt drained. The paras had to eat more to feel full. Then the cravings for other types of food kicked in. The paras craved for the juice in tree roots and they risked leaving the cave to get it. The tochukaso mushrooms were starting to take control.

Even with this parasitic mushroom growing on them, the paras were still able to find some use for the mushroom. The spores the mushrooms produced allowed them to use moves like Stun Spore and Poison Powder to fend off foes.

One of the parasect's children scuttled along the cave floor. The two tochukaso mushrooms on the paras' back were starting to grow rather large. He did not like the mushrooms at all. He still recalled the days when his mind was perfectly clear. He was completely in control of his body then, without the constant egging of the mushrooms to do something to benefit them. He hated the taste of tree roots but without them, there was no other way to settle the constant voices in his head. They were the only thing that seemed to satisfy the mushrooms too, otherwise the paras constantly felt drained of energy.

Out of frustration, the paras snipped off the mushrooms on his back with his claws. Surely snipping them off could get rid of them? "There," he said, glaring at the mushrooms in distaste. "That should take care of it."

But then a voice suddenly rang out in his mind. _Do you really think simply snipping off my mushrooms will get rid of me? I am ingrained into your very self. With each day I grow further throughout your body and gain even more influence over your mind. I may only control your desires as of now, but someday your body will be mine as well._

"I'll find someway to get rid of you before that happens," the paras retorted.

The voice in his head sounded amused. _You really think you can? And to think of how many other paras have tried before you to get rid of their tochukaso. Never have I seen or heard of a paras who has. All of them fall prey to the tochukaso eventually no matter how hard they fight it._

The paras refused to believe it. Every time the mushrooms grew back, he snipped them off in defiance. He fought against the craving to eat tree roots, even if he felt weakened by doing so. He eventually had to give in due to fatigue, but he was planning to make his tochukaso's takeover as difficult as possible.

After so long of fighting it off, the realization began to sink in the young paras. Each time he snipped off the mushrooms, they grew back faster than before. The cravings for tree roots grew more and more intense to the point that he couldn't fight it off any longer. Even snipping off the mushrooms became difficult for him; it was like the mushroom paralyzed his claws.

Every day there was the dread of what would become. _The day that you evolve will be the day that I take complete control and your paras mind will be no more. Your new parasect body will be mine,_ the tochukaso told him.

One day when the paras was crawling through the cave in search of food, a sudden voice shot through the cave. "Mt. Moon sure is big-Oh, look! A paras!" The paras quickly turned to the sound of the voice. It was a young human boy, no older than ten. The boy unclipped a pokeball from his belt and tossed it. In a flash of light, a charmander appeared in front of the boy. "Char, we're catching a paras today! Use Growl!"

The charmander known as Char nodded before growling fiercely at the paras.

The paras froze. He had never encountered a human before or any other pokemon other than the usual ones residing in his cave.

_Don't just stand there and let us get captured!_

His tochukaso snapped him back into reality. The paras charged at Char and scratched him across the chest.

"Scratch him back, Char!"

Char recovered from the paras' attack and scratched him back. The paras winced in pain.

_Use my spores to your advantage! I don't need you loosing on me!_

As much as the paras didn't want to listen to his tochukaso, its spore attacks would come in handy. The paras shook his back, releasing the spores on the newly grown mushrooms on his back.

"Look out for that Stun Spore!"

Char jumped back away from the paras but it was too late. The charmander had breathed in some of the paralyzing spores. Char's body immediately stiffened. "Ugh, that was pretty sneaky of you!"

"Wouldn't have happened if you guys didn't show up!" the paras replied, scratching Char once again.

"Char!" the boy cried. "Use Ember!"

Char grinned through his pain. "This is going to hurt," he said before releasing a volley of embers at the paras.

He was hit dead on. The embers burned with an intense pain as they pelted the paras' body. The tochukaso's screeches in his head didn't help either. The pain was simply too much for the paras to handle and before he knew it, he blacked out.

When the paras awoke, he found himself out in the unpleasant rays of the sun. "Where am I?"

_You were caught by that boy,_ the tochukaso answered for him.

"Hey there, Perry!" a familiar voice said.

The paras turned around to face the boy and his charmander. "Perry...?"

"That's your nickname," Char said with a grin. "Nice to have you on the team, Perry. Adam is planning on taking the gym leader challenge, so I guess that means we're taking it on too!"

Perry looked up at Adam's grinning face. This was not what he wanted. He wanted to live his life in Mt. Moon undisturbed by humans and pokemon. That dream of his was ruined by the tochukaso who demanded he go out to feed it more nutrients out of the tree roots. If only he could have fought off the desire a little longer. Maybe by that time, Adam would have passed by without ever encountering him.

"Hey, don't look so sad," Char said. "It'll be fun, I'm sure! It definitely will be a challenge, but we'll fight beside each other all the way. And maybe someday we can even go fight the Elite Four, but right now let's just focus on the gym badges."

"Yeah..."

"Come on, guys," Adam smiled. "We still have to walk a bit to reach Cerulean City. We already have the Boulder Badge, so the next one is the Cascade Badge." The young trainer trudged off, expecting his two pokemon to follow behind. Char followed loyally behind and Perry hesitantly caught up to Char.

_Look what you got us involved in! Now we're stuck with a human boy and his charmander! What am I supposed to do once I finally have that body of yours? Stick around with the human and fulfill that little dream of his?_

Perry ignored the tochukaso as Char began to speak again. "Some day I'm going to be a charizard, y'know. I'll be able to fly and everything. I won't let anyone mess around with me." Char looked at Perry. "What about you? Evolving into a parasect should be fun. You'll be a lot stronger too."

The tochukaso laughed. _Indeed, it will be quite fun._

"I don't ever want to evolve into a parasect!" Perry snapped.

The paras' sudden flash of anger surprised Char. "Whoa, whoa...calm down. Didn't mean to hit a nerve. Why don't you want to evolve?"

"...No reason. I'm perfectly fine with the way my body is now."

"Hm, right," Char replied. He was not convinced. "You can tell me why later." The charmander smiled at Perry in attempt to cheer up the atmosphere.

Perry just silently followed behind.


	2. Char

"C-Char...he's evolving!" Adam exclaimed.

Char, now a charmeleon, looked on. He too was excited for his teammate to evolve. Perry was flashing with white energy. Perry's eyes were wide with horror. Perry never told Char why he had a fear of evolving but Char assumed it was a silly phobia that people and pokemon sometimes had.

"Char, please make it stop!" Perry pleaded. His voice was desperate.

"It's going to be okay, Perry, don't worry. Evolving isn't scary, I promise," Char grinned.

Tears were forming in Perry's eyes. He looked very tense, as though he was trying to suppress the evolution the best he could. "You...you don't understand..._it's_ going to take over and I won't be me anymore!"

"What do you mean?" Char was alarmed. He didn't quite understand what Perry meant but it was then that he sensed that Perry had a valid fear and something was actually very wrong.

Char's head shot to Adam, who was holding out his pokedex excitedly, waiting to capture the evolution's pokedex entry. Char remembered overhearing that a pokedex had the ability to cancel evolution. He swiped at Adam's arms to try and get the pokedex away from him.

"Whoa!" Adam held the pokedex above his head so Char could not reach it. "I'll show you the pokedex after Perry evolves, Char. Just wait!"

"You don't understand! You need to stop the evolution!" Char shouted. It was no use. He dare not injure Adam to retrieve the pokedex. Any hostility actions towards a trainer was brainwashed out once a pokemon was captured in a pokeball.

Char rushed up to Perry instead. The mushrooms on his back were growing larger and beginning to form one large mushroom on his back. "I'm sorry, Perry, I tried. Just hold on, okay?"

Perry placed a claw gently on Char's foot, with difficulty. "I can't...I can't hold it off any longer... Goodbye, Char, my only friend..."

Suddenly Perry's form grew as did the mushroom on his back and his once bright blue eyes faded to white. The white evolution aura faded around him. Perry's evolution was complete.

Adam cheered behind them as his pokedex beeped with a successful entry.

"Perry? Are you okay?" Char asked, putting his claw gently on Perry's new large one. He was not sure what to expect out of Perry's evolution. Nothing looked off and he looked unharmed.

Perry's face looked up at Char's. It was hard to tell where Perry was looking with his soulless white eyes. "I feel perfect."

Something about Perry's voice made Char shiver. It had a tone very different from what Perry's old one was like. Perry shoved Char aside and scuttled around in his new body. It seemed that Perry was testing out his new body. Char carefully neared Perry. "So, what were you talking about before you evolved?"

Adam interrupted by bounding up to the two of them with his pokedex in hand. "Good job, Perry! I'm so proud of you!" He patted Perry on the top of his mushroom before turning to Char. "Here, since you wanted my pokedex so bad, I'll show you Perry's new pokedex entry!"

Adam pressed a button on his pokedex. "Parasect, the mushroom pokemon. A host-parasite pair in which the parasite has taken over the host bug. Prefers damp places."

"Cool, huh?" Adam said.

It suddenly all made sense to Char. Perry's fear of evolving, why he was so withdrawn, why he kept on trying to clip his mushrooms off, and why he did not even want to talk about evolution...everything about Perry made sense. No matter how much Char prodded at Perry to open up, he failed to succeed. Char later dropped looking for an answer and instead tried his best to cheer Perry up from his constant gloomy demeanor but he was also met with failure in those regards. Still, Char tried his best to be a good friend to Perry while their other pokemon teammates ignored or hated Perry for his attitude towards life.

Char spat embers at the parasect's feet. "Who are you and what have you done with Perry?!" Char roared.

"I don't have a name. I was born when Perry's 'mother' spread her tochukaso spores on her children. Perry is no more. He perished with our evolution and now it's my turn to use this body," the parasect answered.

Adam intervened once again. "Calm down, Char, no need to get angry at Perry! ...Unless...you want to challenge Perry to a battle? That sounds like a great idea! We can test out Perry's new strength! Char, back up a little and you and Perry can spar. I'll call off the fight when one of you gets too tired!"

Char did as instructed and growled menacingly at the parasect. "I'm not going to let you use something that belonged to Perry!"

"I already told you; Perry is dead. It's too late," the parasect responded smugly. "You'll be stuck with me so you should get used it."

Even with its smug attitude, Char could see that the parasect was fidgeting. It was probably afraid of Char's fire, much like Perry was. "I'm going to burn away your very existence from this world until you are nothing but charred ashes for the pain you put Perry through," Char hissed.

Adam signaled. "Fight!"

Char immediately charged and shot embers at the parasect. The parasect's large body was slow to respond. It dodged unsuccessfully and its right side was pelted with burning hot embers. The parasect screeched in pain and hastily responded with a fury cutter. It didn't even phase Char. The charmeleon aggressively scratched at the parasect's face. In defense, the parasect released a purple spore right in Char's face. Char jumped back, coughing. His felt his strength slowly draining him and pain started spreading throughout his body. He recognized this sensation; he was poisoned. The parasect took this moment to shoot out a stun spore as well. Char could do little to avoid as he breathed it in. He could feel his muscles start to clench up as well. "Curse you!" Char growled.

"This power...it's wonderful!" the parasect exclaimed.

Char released a smokescreen, hoping it would provide him cover in his weakened state. It would also hide what he intended to do from Adam's eyes. He pushed his protesting muscles to move and circled around the parasect. He could faintly see the parasect's form through the smoke. Hopefully the parasect could not see him as well. Purple fire shot out of his mouth. He could hear the successful hit of his dragon rage due to the parasect's screech.

The parasect slashed in the direction of the dragon rage to no avail. Char kept on moving. When he thought he was behind the parasect, he charged forward and bit into its back with a fire fang, digging his teeth deep within the mushroom's core. The parasect let out an even louder screech and it desperately tried to claw Char off its back but its claws were too short. Char kept his mouth clamped on the parasect, continuously pumping fire through his mouth. The heat of his own fire was almost unbearable for Char himself as was the parasect's continuous screeching, but he refused to let go. The parasect tried releasing more spores, but the weight of the smokescreen around the two pokemon pushed the spores down so Char would not breath them in.

"Char! Perry! I think that's enough!" Adam's voice shouted. He sounded very concerned, if not scared, over what was happening. He still couldn't see due to Char's smokescreen.

Char ignored his trainer. Flames started to spread over the parasect's body and the screeching got louder. The parasect's body started convulsing and twitching; then it went silent and collapsed on the ground. Char released his grip on the parasect and slumped on the ground next to the parasect's body. His body was throbbing in pain and his muscles had finally won their battle and tensed up so he could not move. As the smoke started to clear, he could see the parasect's eyes...burnt, but still white and lifeless.

"I'm sorry, Perry," Char murmured as tears ran down his face. "This is the only way I could help you now. I hope you can forgive me for what I did to your body. I'm sorry I couldn't stop your evolution. I only wish you would have told me what constantly haunted your mind. Maybe then I could have helped you somehow... I wish things could have been different."

When the smokescreen had finally cleared, Char saw Adam run up to them. He gasped. "Perry!"

Char's vision was fading, but he could imagine his trainer's face. The parasect's body had been brutally destroyed by him. Large gashes and burns covered the body. The smoke floating up from charred corpse gave off a horrendous smell.

Adam tried to recall the parasect back to Perry's pokeball but nothing happened. Adam tried again and again. He was starting to panic; Char was sure that he had started to figure out that the parasect was really dead. Adam started to sob. "What did you do, Char?! This was supposed to be a friendly battle!" Adam fell to his knees. Adam's voice started to sound angry. "Perry was my second pokemon. I thought you two were friends! Why would you do this?!"

The last thing Char heard was the sound of Adam's crying before he was recalled back into the darkness of his own pokeball. Char wondered what would become of him. He knew it looked bad from his trainer's perspective. He had violently killed one of his pokemon. Maybe Char would be thought of as too dangerous and be thrown in a PC box for eternity. Maybe Adam would forgive him and they could move on. Char wasn't sure. At least he had avenged his very first friend. Char hoped that wherever Perry's soul was now it was at peace, finally free from his tormentor.


End file.
